Australians are increasingly looking for value, and for ways to shop early, to save.
Shopping events like Black Friday are a surefire way for savvy bargain-hunters to take advantage of major deals, on everything from homewares to fashion, and save in the process.
But it isn’t only customers scoring big.
The 2022 Black Friday sale marked Amazon Australia‘s biggest shopping event ever for small business brands, with tens of thousands of products purchased from hundreds of brands throughout the sale.
Black Friday boom for amazon.com.au sellers
In recent years, Black Friday has become one of, if not the, most important event on the annual Australian retail calendar.
“We saw significant sales in the week leading up to Black Friday and right through to the following Tuesday,” says Tara Simich — founder of hair styling tools and accessories brand, Mermade. “
Tens of thousands of products were purchased throughout the sale from homegrown businesses, including Queensland-based outdoor adventure brand, TKO Outdoors.
“These sales are extremely important for the business,” says owner and founder, Ty Kennedy. “They contribute to brand awareness, sales rankings, and positive product reviews, all of which help to grow the business.”
Putting a spotlight on small businesses
“Amazon Australia has provided personalised guidance at every step of our journey and this support has been really helpful, especially with our very lean team,” explains Tara.
Another initiative that ensures Australian businesses are put front and centre on amazon.com.au is the Small Business Brands store, which is curated to showcase and hero hundreds of products from Australian-based small business brands offered by Amazon and its selling partners.
Providing sellers with the tools to help them grow
Running an online business entails so much more than simply loading a webpage. With inventory management, shipping, user experience, marketing, and so much more to think about, small businesses are often juggling to keep all the balls in the air.
Through Seller Central, sellers can access a hub of tools and education that enables them to do everything from creating and managing listings, through to tracking sales and marketing analytics.
Creating her business after giving birth to her second child, after struggling to find at-home hair styling tools, Tara says that these Amazon tools allowed her to take her business to the next level.
“We love the transparency and the reporting tools on Amazon’s backend,” she explains. “We can login anywhere in the world to update our listings, track sales, check stock levels, and to easily identify areas of improvement.
“The system is so advanced yet user-friendly, that we are able to manage our Amazon Australia account internally without the need for costly agencies.”
Helping businesses make the best of their selling experience, with reports, templates, product listings and more, just a click away, Seller Central has also been a vital to the success of his business, says Ty.
“It’s the best tool we have in our business,” he says. “Having the one platform, from which to access all our inventory, listings, promotions, sales, orders, customer messages and more, makes it a lot easier to time manage and see what needs to actioned.”
Helping sellers increase their customer reach
While there’s a trove of features available to sellers on Amazon.com.au, perhaps the most useful tool of all is Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) — especially during busy sales periods, like Black Friday.
Allowing sellers to step back from the fulfilment process, businesses simply ship inventory to Amazon Australia's fulfilment centre, and all the storage, packing, shipping and customer service, is taken care of.
“Without FBA I don’t think I could run my business,” says Ty. “Far more than just a shipping service, it’s an end-to-end inventory management, operations, and supply chain service, which is pretty unique.
“By having Amazon Australia fulfil our orders, it creates more time for us team to focus on sourcing new products, advertising, sales analytics, and growing the business.”
Having a resource that can handle fulfilment and returns has been a total game-changer, agrees Tara.
“Being based in Perth yet able to sell to customers right around the world through Amazon is everything,” she says.
“With FBA, we can get our products delivered to customers quickly, and it frees up my time to spend with my family.”
Committed to Aussie businesses — Black Friday and beyond
Bolstered by the success of shopping events like Black Friday, Tara and many of her homegrown SMB peers, are already looking ahead to the next 12 months and the expansion and increased sales that they hope it will bring.
“We saw such strong results with Black Friday,” says Tara. “We’re now selling across three Amazon stores and we’re looking forward to adding to this list.”
Expansion is also on the cards for TKO Outdoors, says Ty.
“We hope to increase our product range and both the Black Friday and Prime Day sales will play a crucial part in allowing us to do this, by helping us grow brand awareness and expand into other Amazon stores.”
However, for Ty, his success on Amazon Australia isn’t just reflected in the growth of his business — it’s through the lifestyle he and his business partner wife have been able to create as a result.
“Our business began out of our own passion for adventure and the outdoors. And through selling on amazon.com.au we’ve been able to live our passion and turn it into a business at the same time.
“Amazon Australia has helped me to create a better work -life-balance, and spend more time with my family making memories.”
It’s a similar story for mum-of-two, Tara, who is able to balance the demands of raising a young family, along with the demands of a growing business.
“Time is precious and being a seller has really helped me create the working life that I want, and I’m so thankful to Amazon Australia for that,” she says.
“Amazon has such an amazing customer base, such great tools, and such huge potential to help make your business succeed. It’s a no-brainer, and I’m urging all my girl boss friends to get their businesses on amazon.com.au too!"
Find out more about how Amazon Australia supports small businesses here
